Package of index guides



Sept. 6, 1932. us s g 1,876,181

' PACKAGE OF INDEX QUIDES Filed NOV. 19. 1950 m QiDCDCDCDCD/ERDCD \w 4Reginald Miller Twsoin Patented Sept. 6, 1932 UNITED STATES P TE -O FIREGINALD MILLER russnve, on MABIETTA, OHIO, .ASSIGNOR To THE vroron sA E& EQUIPMENT COMPANY, or MARIETTA, OHIO PACKAGE OF INDEX GUIDESApplication filed November 19, 1930. Serial No. 496,760.

Thisinvention relates to a. package of index guides providing a newdevelopment in which the index guide .and package cooperate incombination for packagingthe guides for;

shipment as well as providing for the display of a complete set ofguides in assembled relation with all of the index tabs thereon readilyvisible. I The invention comprehends the provisio of a container for aset of index guides having tabs'thereon, provided with index charactersin which the guides are arranged in groups in accordance with thearrangement of the tabs, so that adjacent groups may be spaced apart toseparate alined tabs on guides in successive groups apart in order thatall of the index characters and the tab may be readily viewed, thecontainer being of less height than the index guides in order that allthe tabs will be readily visible and compactly contained, so that aremovable cover may be applied over the container to entirely house theguides for providing a shipping or storing package.

1 The invention further comprehends the provision of a package of guidesof the character above mentioned in which the container supports theguides in an upstanding position so that all of the tabs are readilyvisible for display purposes, the front Wall of the container beingprovided with an identifying label and price tag completely'enclosed bythe removable cover when the guides are to be stored or shipped.

' Another feature of the invention resides in placing a signal elementon the outside of thecover for signalling the color or type ofindex'tabs and captions applied on the guide within the package.

The invention includes other features which are moreparticularly pointedoutin the following description and claims directed to the preferredform of construction, it being understood that various ohangesin thesize, shape and relation of the parts may be made without departing fromthe scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

In the drawing forming part of this application:

' Fig. 1 is a perspective showing a complete showingthe identifyinglabel and price tag,

applied to the front of the container.

Fig. 2 is a perspective of the removable cover adapted for slidabletelescoping" engagement over the container shown in Fig; 1 so as tocompletely enclose the guides and container therein, also showing thelabel and signal applied to one side of the cover in which the signal isadapted to indicate the character of the guides, tab-s or index captionson the guides contained therein.

Fig. 3 is an end elevation on an enlarged scale of the package of guideswith the cover applied showing portions of the container and coverbroken away andin section" and illustrating the guides and the spacermembers in end elevation to show the arrangement of the group of guidesand spacers in the container in the manner in which the cover en-,

closesboth the container and guides.

A set of index guide cards 1 is indicated in Fig. 1 in which the guidecards are arranged in' groups .Z-spaced apart in the manner illustrated,each guide card in each group being providedwith an index tab 3 ofsuitable character for receiving an index caption 4: of any desiredtype, in which the index tabs 3 are offset laterally along the upperedge of adjacent guide cards in the group as fully illustrated in Fig.1.- The illustration in Figs. 1 and 3 discloses a special type of indextab 3 in which the front edge overhangs the face of the guide card 1 asindicated at 5. However, any of the numerous types of guide tabs wellknown in the art may be used with guide cards packed in accordance withthis invention for display as well as selling and shipping purposes andthe disclosure of the tabs is for the purpose of illustration only. 1

This set of guide cards 1 is housed within an open topped container 6having front, rear, side and bottom walls, the front wall beingindicated by the numeral 7 The front, back and side walls of thecontainer 6 are of less height than the guide cards 1 in order to permitthe upper end of the guide cards 1 to project above the upper edgeof thecontainer so that the guide tabs and index captions will be completelyand clearly displayed in the manner illustrated in Fig. 1. These guidecards 1 are tightly packed in the container 6 and the groups 2 are heldin spaced packed relation by means of spacer members 8 illustrated inFig. 3 which are formed of any suitable material, preferably corrugatedcard or paper board as illus trated in Fig. 3, whichincludes a pair offlat paper strips 9 and a corrugated paper strip 10 suitably pasted orsecured thereto. These spacer members 8 are fully contained within thecontainer 6 in order that they do not project above the upper edgethereof, and are therefore substantially concealed in the assembled formofthe groups of guide cards in the container as illustrated in Fig. 1.

A cover 11 of tubular formation, rectangular in cross section and closedat the upper end is slidably and telescopically fitted over the upperends of the guides 1 and the upper open end of the container 6 in themanner illustrated in Fig. 3 so that the free edge thereof terminatesflush with the bottom face of the container 6 and entirely encloses theguide cards and the container. Finger openings 12 are provided in thefree edge of the cover 11 to permit of manual grasping of the containerwhen it is desired to remove the cover.

An identifying label and price tag 13 preferably in the form of aprinted paper sheet is pasted or otherwise applied to the front wall 7of'the container 6 so as to form a complete and handy display packagefor the guide 1 which may be set on a showcase or in a display window inorder to fully display all information in connection with the guidecards 1 to prospective purchasers in a manner in which the purchaser canreadily View all of the guide cards and tabs used in a set to form acomplete index system. When the cover 11 is applied to the container 6it will be understood that it engages over the identifying label andprice tag 13 so as to conceal the same in package form.

A general identifying label 1 1 may be applied to the cover 11 as shownin Fig. 2 if desired, and a signal 15 is applied to the cover 11 inorder to signal the type of index tab, caption, or the color of theindex tab, so thatwithout removing the cover from the package thecontents may be readily identified, thus aiding the handling of thepackages in storing and shipping on the part of both the manufacturerand dealer to secure the desired type of index guides for a customerwithout opening a package or handling the guides in any way. This avoidsa substantial loss to the manufacturer and dealer due to the necessityfor constantly handling the guides themselves in both packaging andshipping as Well as in displaying guides to customers for sales purposeswhich With this package of guide cards it will be seen that they may bereadily handled without touching the guide cards both for shipping anddisplay purposes and it is unnecessary to remove the guide cards fromthecontainer for any type of display purposes because they are arranged inspecial groups and separated by the spacer members 8 in such a mannerthat all of the index tabs and captions are fully visible.

Heretofore, in the handling and sale of index guide cards they have beenpacked in horizontal relation one on top of another in cartons forstoring and shipping purposes and when received by a dealer, requiredthe opening of the packages which only presented the upper guide to viewand when it was necessary to display the guides to a customer, they hadto be removed from the package which necessitated the handling of theguides themselves resulting in soiling as well as other damage to theguides in numerous instances making them unsalable. This previous mannerof packaging the guides further precludes any use of the package fordisplaying the guides in their proper relation and results in the clerkhandling the guides usually displaying only a few guides from a set insuch a segregated manner that it is diffn cult to determine how a set ofguides would look in assembled relation in a file. The present inventionovercomes all of these difficulties by compactly and neatly retaining acomplete set of guides in the container 6 properly spaced, so that allof the tabs are viewed, in which the cover is removably applied so thatthe guides may be readily packaged for shipping or selling purposeswithout necessitating the handling of the guides and when the cover isremoved fully displays all of the guides in the best known manner.

The use of the price tag Bend the signal 15 also facilitates thehandling and sale of these guides in the package, the signal 15 being ofparticular advantage to the dealer in determining the types and colorsof tabs together with the types of index captions thereon so that theymay be readily sorted or picked out of the pack for the customers withthe loss of the least possible time.

What is claimed is:

1. In a display package of indexguides, the combination of a pluralityof index guide cards arranged in groups and'having index tabs on eachadjacent card in a group offset laterally, an open topped container ofless height than said guide cards receiving and supporting said cards inupstanding relation therein with the upper end portions of said guidecards and the index tabs thereon projecting above the upper open end of.said container, spacer members between adjacent groups of said guidecards in said container, said spacer members having a thicknesssufficient to space the front card of one group of 5 cards from the rearcard of a preceding group of cards so that the tab thereon is visiblefor display, whereby each group of cards is separated from other groupsand all of the tabs thereon are visible for display when thepackage isviewed from a point above and in front thereof.

2. In a display package of index guides, the combination of a pluralityof index guide cards arranged in groups and having index tabs on eachadjacent card in a group ofiset laterally, each of the tabs having aportion overhanging the face of its respective card, an open toppedcontainer of less height than the guide cards receiving and supportingsaid cards in upstanding relation therein, spacer members betweenadjacent groups of guide cards in the container, said spacer membershaving a thickness suflicient to space the overhanging tab portion ofthe front card of one group of cards from the plane of a rear card of apreceding group, whereby each group of cards is visibly separated fromother groups and all of the tabs are visible for display.

REGINALD MILLER TUSSING. 3O

